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Heavy metal pollution poses a severe threat to the water environment. Engineering sub-10 nm active functional materials is an important approach to address the problems, and nanocomposites, developed in recent years by pore confinement always present weaken diffusion and low utilization of nanoparticles. In this study, we successfully prepared the polydopamine confined high-density sub-10 nm Sn(HPO4)2 coating for toxic lead(II) removal and its unique external coating structure and superior active sub-10 nm size achieved remarkable performances for heavy metal remediation. The hybrid sub-10 nm coating exhibits an extended acidic environment application (pH=2.0-7.0) as well as significant selectivity with a superior Kd values (9.4×104 mL/g, which is 450 times greater than that of commercial sulfonated polystyrene. Ultrafast filtrations by vacuum further validate its superior sequestration (near to 100%) to Pb and Cd ions at different concentrations (10-100 mg/L) for 2 mins. The real column application further demonstrates the remarkable capacity of 11800 kg per kg sorbents, the trace effluents with three orders (∼103) reduction to below 1 ppb (> 99.9% Pb removal) and efficient stability for several cycles. The effective performances are mainly driven by the PDA motivated external nanoparticles arrangement and strong inner-sphere complexation by small size of Sn(HPO4)2. These results set a new benchmark for removing toxic metals and the proposed approach (engineering sub-10 nm coating design) is unique for heavy metal removal.

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) disproportionation, iron precipitation, and narrow pH range are the drawbacks of traditional Fenton process. To surmount these barriers, we proposed a ferric ion (Fe3+)-ascorbic acid (AA) complex catalyzed calcium peroxide (CaO2) Fenton-like system to remove organic dyes in water. This collaborative Fe3+/AA/CaO2 system presented an obvious improvement in the methyl orange (MO) decolorization, and also effectively eliminated other dyes. Response surface method was employed to optimize the running parameters for this coupling process. Under the optimized arguments (2.76 mmol/L Fe3+, 0.68 mmol/L AA, and 4 mmol/L CaO2), the MO removal achieved 98.90% after 15 min at pH 6.50, which was close to the computed outcome of 99.30%. Furthermore, this Fenton-like system could perform well in a wide range of pH (3–11), and enhance the H2O2 decomposition and Fe ions recycle. The scavenger experiment result indicated that hydroxyl radical, superoxide anion free radical, and singlet oxygen were acted on the dye elimination. Moreover, electron spin resonance analysis corroborated that the existences of these active species in the Fe3+/AA/CaO2 system. This study could advance the development of Fenton-like technique in organic effluent disposal.

In recent years, lanthanum-based nanomaterials (La-NMs) are selected as an efficient nano-adsorbent for phosphate removal because La3+ has a strong affinity with oxygen-donor atoms from phosphate. Additionally, there are a broad interest and literature base for the effect of different synthesis optimization and environmental parameters on the adsorption performance of La-NMs. A considerable amount of research has also investigated the regeneration and application of La-NMs to real wastewater in a laboratory scale. Based on the literature survey, it was found that La-NMs are often produced via co-precipitation and hydrothermal methods. Moreover, phosphate's adsorption process and behavior onto La-NMs are described well with the pseudo-second-order model and Langmuir model. The interaction mechanism between phosphate and La-NMs are dominated by ligand exchange, surface complexation and electrostatic attraction. Furthermore, phosphate could easily desorb from La-NMs due to the weak H-bonding interaction between phosphate and the H-bond acceptor groups on the surface of La-NMs. Despite the wealth of literature available in this area, there is a lack of systematic review to evaluate the gaps in the use of La-NMs to eliminate phosphate in water. In this review, we mainly summarize and discuss the role and the effect of the synthesis techniques on the physicochemical properties and the adsorption behavior of La-NMs. The possible adsorption mechanism, regeneration efficiency, and the application of La-NMs to the real environmental samples are also presented and highlighted.

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) has excellent trapping ability for lead ions whereas its micro-/nanoscale size has greatly impeded its practical applications in the flow-through systems. Herein, a millimeter-sized nanocomposite MoS2−001 was synthesized for Pb2+ removal by loading MoS2 nanosheets into a polystyrene cation exchanger D-001 by a facile hydrothermal method. The proposed structure and adsorption mechanism of MoS2−001 was confirmed by the scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis. The nanocomposite showed outstanding adsorption capacity and rapid adsorption kinetic for Pb2+ removal, and the adsorption behavior followed the Langmuir adsorption model and pseudo-first-model kinetic model. Pb2+ uptake by MoS2−001 still maintains a high level even in the presence of extremely highly competitive ions (Ca(II) and Mg(II)), suggesting its high selectivity for Pb2+ adsorption. Besides, the fixed-bed column experiments further certified that MoS2−001 is of great potential for Pb2+ removal from the wastewater in practical engineering applications. Even more gratifying is that the exhausted MoS2−001 can be regenerated by NaCl-EDTANa2 solution without any significant adsorption capacity loss. Consequently, all the results indicated that MoS2−001 is a promising candidate adsorbent for lead-containing wastewater treatment.

The problem of water pollution has become increasingly serious, and it has already threatened the survival of mankind and has become an obstacle to the healthy development of human health. Here, we prepared a novel polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/polyacrylic acid (PAA)/MXene fiber membrane by electrospinning. After heat treatment of film and subsequent modification with Pd nanoparticles, PVA/PAA/MXene@PdNPs composite nanofiber membrane with high specific surface area and excellent catalytic performance was finally prepared. The uniform distribution of MXene sheets in the composite fiber membrane not only solves the problem that the MXene sheet is not easy to be monolayerized, but also can grow the self-reduced Pd nanoparticles on the MXene sheets. In addition, the composite nanofiber membrane exhibits excellent catalytic ability and cycle stability for 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) and 2-nitrophenol (2-NA), providing new strategy for the study of catalytic composite materials related to degradation of wastewater.

Constructing a Z-scheme is a significant approach to improve the separation of photogenerated carriers for effective organic pollutant degradation. Herein, a BiVO4/ZnIn2S4 (BZ) Z-scheme composite was successfully synthesized, and applied to photodegrade methyl orange (MO) irradiated by a LED lamp. Anchoring the BiVO4 on the ZnIn2S4 nanoparticles promoted the separation of photogenerated electron-holes and broadened the light response range. The detailed characterizations, including surface morphology, elements valence state, and photocurrent performance, demonstrated that the enhanced separation of photogenerated carriers was the pivotal reason for the enhanced photocatalysis reaction. Benefiting from the excellent photocatalytic characteristics, the 5% mass ratio of BZ composite presented the highest MO degradation rate of 0.00997⬰min↙1, which was 1.9 and 10.3 times greater than the virgin ZnIn2S4 and BiVO4, respectively. Furthermore, the BZ hybrid materials indicated a well photo-stability in the four recycling tests.

Arsenic decontamination from groundwater is an urgent but still challenging task. Polystyrene-based hydrated ferric oxide (denoted as D201-HFO) nanocomposite is a new emerging current adsorbent for efficient arsenate removal in natural waters; the resulting materials can interact with arsenate, mainly driven by inner complexation and static interaction and the existing HA effects on adsorption was well investigated. Results reveals that low concentrations of HA (below 25 mg/L) coexistence led to negligible effects on As(V) removal, but high levels of HA (100 mg/L) exerted outstanding sorption competition to As(V) removal; kinetics results revealed the HA additions brought about the diffusion prolonging and capacity decline, due to the large molecule structure of HA. Column experiments further showed the slight decrease application capacity of 810 BV by HA additions, with satisfactory saturation capacity; significantly, the presence of HA also exerted negligible influences on regeneration performances. All the sorbents with or without HA could be well regenerated by binary alkaline and salt mixture.

Functionalized nanocomposite adsorbents based on multiple sites of sorption are critically important for advancing removal of heavy metal ions. Herein, a non-covalently assembly strategy for fabrication of efficient adsorbent with multiple-site adsorption capability is introduced. A novel hybrid nanomaterial was fabricated by encapsulating chitosan molecules (CS) into charged polystyrene resin (PS) through electrostatic adsorption. The resulting hybrid absorbent (PS-CS) demonstrates highly efficient sorption toward cupric ion, mainly because of the electrostatic interactions of sulfonate group and chelation of NH2 and OH groups of chitosan with cupric ion. Meanwhile, the obtained composites with interior well-dispersed chitosan molecules give specific selectivity for cupric ion in the present of divalent competition ions such as Ca2+ and Mg2+. Adsorption equilibrium data can be described with Freundlich isotherms model and the pseudo-second-order model. The kinetic rate constants have been determined for PS and PS-CS nanocomposite. In this paper, it is suggested that charged groups in host materials not only enhance the fixation and dispersion performance of embedded molecules but provide more target sites for nanocomposite, thus enhancing capacity for sorption of metal ions. Therefore, construction of multi-target nanocomposites provides conceivably promoted development of highly efficient adsorbents for toxic metals abatement.

Although many literatures have reported that biomass materials had been used for water treatment, most of the biomass materials were directly used for adsorbing toxic or organic substances. In this research, modified pine bark and corn straw were used to prepare the high-efficiency and low-cost activated sludge immobilized materials. By treating phenol wastewater and ordinary organic wastewater, various factors influencing the treatment effect were investigated. The results showed that the immobilized biological carriers had good effects on the treatment of two kinds of wastewater. The removal efficiency of the phenol wastewater reached 100% in 24 h, and the removal efficiency of ordinary organic wastewater reached 95.5% in 96 h. The results of microbial community analysis showed that the abundance of the immobilized carrier and that of the original sludge was similar. But when treating different wastewater, the number and proportion of microorganisms were significantly different.

We report a new strategy for efficient removal of F- from contaminated water streams, and it relies on carbon hybrid membranes made of amyloid fibril/ZrO2 nanoparticles (

In this paper, new composite nanomaterials by encapsulating Schiff base molecules with hydrophilic spacers into sulfonate groups charged polystyrene beads (PS) have been prepared. The obtained comp...

Photocatalytic fuel cell (PFC) is promising owing to its synchronous organic pollutants removal and energy recycle, but it still remains to improve in the cell performance. Herein, we demonstrate a synergistic method adding peroxymonosulfate (PMS) into PFC to promote antibiotic tetracycline (TC) degradation and simultaneous electric power generation. The introduction of PMS could be activated by the photoelectric effects, also used as the electrolyte and electron acceptor, which could enhance the photoelectrocatalysis and spread the reaction space from the electrode surface to the whole system. Herein, the PFC/PMS augmented the TC decontamination by 82.83% and electricity production by 122.40% versus the PFC without introducing PMS, respectively. In addition, factors controlled namely PMS dosage, solution pH, and UV intensity were investigated for the cell performance of the coupling system. Furthermore, UV–Vis spectrum and TOC analysis confirmed the destruction mineralization of TC. Moreover, a series of radicals quenching experiments were implemented to explore the cooperative elimination mechanism, and the results indicated that hydroxyl and sulfate radicals played the key roles at the acidic condition, and the direct oxidation of PMS dominated the chief effect at the neutral environment, and singlet oxygen and superoxide anion acted the primary function in the alkaline circumstance.

With the development of various nanofiber materials in the world, polymer nanofiber materials have been widely used, and advanced polymer nanofiber materials obtained through electrospinning technology are of great significance. Electrospinning technology is a green and simple and effective method for directly and continuously preparing polymer nanofibers. In addition, the prepared electrospun fibers have unique characteristics such as specific surface area and high porosity. This chapter provides a comprehensive review of the preparation process of various electrospun fiber materials and applies these composite nanofiber materials to the fields of adsorption, catalysis, and air filtration. At the same time, the recent research progress in the preparation of composite nanofibers by electrospinning technology is reviewed. Finally, the application prospects and challenges of electrospinning technology in composite nanofibers are described.

Increasing environmental problems and energy challenges have created an urgent demand for the development of green and efficient energy-storage systems. The search for new materials that could improve the performance of Li-ion batteries (LIBs) is one of today's most challenging tasks. Herein, a stable symmetric LIB based on the bipolar material-MXene/Na0.55Mn1.4Ti0.6O4 was developed. This bipolar hybrid material showed a typical MXene-type layered structure with high conductivity, containing two electrochemically active redox couples, namely, Mn4+/Mn3+ (3.06 V) and Mn2+/Mn (0.25 V). This MXene/Na0.55Mn2O4-based symmetric full cell exhibited the highest energy density of 393.4 W h kg−1 among all symmetric full cells reported so far, wherein it is bestowed with a high average voltage of 2.81 V and a reversible capacity of 140 mA h g−1 at a current density of 100 mA g−1. In addition, it offers a capacity retention of 79.4% after 200 cycles at a current density of 500 mA g−1. This symmetric lithium ion full battery will stimulate further research on new LIBs using the same active materials with improved safety, lower costs and a long life-span.

Differing from graphene with a carbon element component, analogous metallic-graphene two-dimensional layered titanium carbide (2D MXene) provides more opportunities to achieve better surface functionalization. Herein, a thin layered 2D MXene/A-TiO2 composite was prepared by chemical exfoliation and hydrothermal decomposition. The 2D MXene/A-TiO2 composite exhibits high catalytic activity in the adsorption and desorption of hydrogen kinetics for NaAlH4. The critical dehydrogenation temperature of NaAlH4 is ∼90 °C. The first-stage dehydrogenation (∼3.0 wt.%) is accomplished in 50 min at 110 °C. After the first activated cycle, a constant cycling capacity of 4.7 wt.% is remained for a minimum of five cycles tests. It is found that the excellent catalytic activation should be ascribed to the synergistic effect between homogenous distributed Ti-H and TiC, which are originated from MXene/A-TiO2. The results represent a new step forward in the applications of MXene catalytic dehydrogenation and provide new strategies in the quest for new functional MXene derivatives by in-situ modification.

Differing from as-cast and solid-solution alloys with coarse eutectic phases (Mg17Al12), a single-phase structure is attained in Mg-25 wt.%Al alloy after ultrahigh-pressure solid-solution (USS, 800 °C, 4 GPa). This USSed Mg-25 wt.%Al sample exhibits a prominent age-hardening response due to the nano-scaled Mg17Al12 particles. Three testing methods confirm that USS-aged Mg-25 wt.%Al alloy shows good corrosion resistance, which overwhelms the majority of Mg-based alloys reported so far, near to high purity Mg. The main reason is attributed to the formation of Al-rich oxide layer, wherein residual stress and pitting corrosion are eliminated. It provides a new avenue for developing corrosion resistant Mg alloys.

A conventional reactive distillation column will not be able to produce high purity isopropyl acetate (IPAc) due to the existence of a minimum boiling azeotrope in the system. In this work, a novel...

The design and preparation of functionalized composite adsorbent materials are of key importance for wide environmental fields. This study demonstrates a new route to fabricate hybrid nanomaterial by encapsulating Schiff base molecules into sulfonate groups charged polystyrene beads (PS). The prepared composite adsorbent, polystyrene-Schiff base ((PS-SB)) nanocomposites, showed more preferable Cu(II) ion removal capacity in the presence of Mg2+ and Ca2+ co-ions in solutions. Comparatively, the obtained (PS-SB) composites with inner well-dispersed Schiff base molecules and high sorption ability demonstrated much faster breakthrough for Cu(II) ion removal than PS beads, mainly due to the electrostatic forces and coordinating reaction of Schiff base groups with Cu(II) ion. In addition, the used composite adsorbent material could be easily regenerated by HCl-NaCl solution for repeated utilization without obvious capacity loss. Present research work showed that charged functional groups in host nanostructures improved the dispersion and connection of anchored organic molecules, enhancing the removal capacity of targeted metal ions. Suitably designed guest molecules in composite structures are crucial in the preparation of excellent nanocomposites for the removal of toxic metal ions and other charged pollutants from wastewater.

Polyethyleneimine (PEI) is a famous chelated reagent for heavy metal capture, but the soluble PEI immobilization always needs complicated chemical procedures. In this work, we explored a simple and green strategy for PEI immobilization and Pb(II) removal by polydopamine (PDA) polymerization. It relies on a cooperative adsorption, originated from the fixation of charged SO3H groups inside polystyrene matrix, and in-situ formation of PDA adjugated PEI by simple reaction at ambient temperature. The PDA interface favors the formation of stable adjugated PEI, and the charged SO3H groups can drive trace heavy metal ions from bulk solution to the vicinity of branched PEI. These hybrid adsorbents exhibit superior selectivity with a distribution coefficient of 5250 mL/g, rapid kinetics (∼50 mins) and satisfactory sorption-regeneration property in Pb(II) removal. An outstanding capacity of ∼ 6200 L water/kg sorbent and trace effluent (

The fluoride pollution in water has aroused great concern worldwide, and the fluoride removal by adsorbent is effective technique, and challenged by its weak selectivity and low capacity. Herein, we reported a new insight into the small size of La(OH)3 nanoparticles preparation and efficient fluoride removal from waters, it relies on the charged amino-acids inside discarded Artemia Cyst-shell, motivated sub-10 nm La(OH)3 formation (

We reported a new strategy for efficient phosphate removal from wastewaters, it relies on the discarded Artemia Cyst-shell in-situ growth of Al(OH)3 nanocluster, the charged amino-acids components of skeleton make available for the small size of Al(OH)3 formation (

A synergistic process adding peracetic acid (PAA) in electrochemistry (EC) was established to eliminate organic contaminants in water as a novel advanced oxidation process (AOP). The introduced PAA could be activated by the EC system, substituting electrolyte and promoting the methylene blue (MB) removal than the sole PAA and conventional EC systems. A series of scavenging tests demonstrated that the activation products were hydroxyl radical (HO·) and organic radicals (R-O·) in this EC/PAA process, which both played the dominant role for the MB decontamination. The effect of PAA dose, current density, initial pH, and initial MB concentration on the MB decolorization were investigated, and the results indicated that 93.99% MB was removed with the optimized conditions of 3.6 mmol L−1 PAA, 7.5 mmol L−1 H2O2, initial pH 3, and 10 mg L−1 MB concentration. The influence of water matrix (Cl−, HCO3−, SO42−, and humic acid) for removing MB was determined, and the results showed that the MB removal was considerably inhibited by these constituents of water. Lastly, the decomposition mechanism for the MB was suggested through the outcome of mass spectrometry. This study demonstrated that the EC/PAA process could be a feasible method, advancing the development of AOP for water treatment.

Nanostructured metal oxide bearing composites are new-generation materials for the removal of various heavy metals from water, however, they are inefficient when used in acidic solutions, because of their poor stability, strong H+ competition and surface charge repulsion. To overcome these problems, we designed a new composite (Zr/Mg oxide-PS), which was synthesized by doping hybrid Mg and Zr oxides into negatively charged sulfonated polystyrene (PS) to extend the applicability of such composites to Cu(II) removal in acidic wastewaters. Three different modes of action are involved: the embedded Mg(II) oxide acts as a buffer against changes in the internal solution environment in the nanopore region; the hybrid nano-Zr(IV) oxide together with the Mg(II) species, provides good Cu sorption; and the –SO3H group that is immobilized on the matrix improves access to Cu(II). The obtained Zr/Mg oxide-PS has extensive applicability to acidic Cu-contaminated waters and gives a selectivity of approximately 20 times greater than that of ZrO2-PS. For the wastewater application, an excellent adsorption capacity of 4650 kg wastewater per kg of sorbent was achieved. The effluent met World Health Organization drinking water standards, exhausted materials were readily regenerated, and it was used repeatedly for several cycles. The results suggest that this Mg-containing composite has potential applications in the remediation of acidic heavy-metal-containing wastewaters.

Toxic heavy metal containing Cr(VI) species is a serious threat for ecological environment and human beings. In this work, a new mussel-inspired polydopamine microsphere (PDA-sphere) is prepared through in situ oxidative polymerization at air condition with controllable sizes. The adsorption of Cr(VI) ions onto PDA-sphere is highly pH dependent with the optimal pH ranging from 2.5 to 3.8. A rapid Cr(VI) removal can approach in 8 min for equilibrium. More importantly, the prepared materials exhibit a remarkable sorption selectivity, coexisting SO 4 2− , NO 3 − and Cl − ions at high levels; The applicability model further proves its effective performances with treated capacity of 42,000 kg/kg sorbent, and the effluent can be reduced from 2000 ppb to below 50 ppb, which meets the drinking water criterions recommended by WHO. 1 kg sorbent can also purify approximately 100 t Cr(VI) contaminated wastewaters basing on the wastewater discharges of China. Such capacity for application ranks the top level for Cr(VI) removal. Additionally, the exhausted materials can be well regenerated by binary alkaline and salts mixtures. Such efficient adsorption can be ascribed to the well-dispersed morphology as well as the strong affinity between Cr(VI) and catechol or amine groups by XPS investigation. All the results suggest that polydopamine microspheres may be ideal materials for Cr(VI) treatment in waters.

Heavy metal purification of water is a worldwide issue. In this work, we first find that the discarded Artemia cyst shell exhibits a unique three-dimensional porous structure, which can be recycled for efficient toxic Pb(II) removal. The hierarchical skeleton comprised of the macro–meso–micropore confirmation as well as 17 types of amino acid species provides fast ion accessibility and a strong sorption affinity. The results prove that an extremely rapid Pb capture is obtained in less than 2 min, strong adsorption occurs in the presence of high concentration of Ca/Mg/Na ions, and selectivity is far beyond that of the commercial 001x7 (greater than 50 times). More importantly, an efficient application is achieved with a treatment capacity of 9100 kg wastewater/kg sorbent, which is 45 times greater than the performance of commercially activated carbon and ion-exchange resin. The effluent can be dramatically reduced to below 10 μg/L level (WHO). In addition, we can also regenerate the exhausted biomaterial A...

Two-dimensional (2D) carbon nanomaterials generally display some limitations in adsorption applications due to easy agglomeration. To solve this problem, as-synthesized sandwiched nanocomposites made of Fe3O4 nanoparticles, poly(allylamine) hydrochloride molecules, and carboxylate graphene oxide sheets were prepared using a layer-by-layer (LbL) self-assembly method. The successfully synthesized sandwiched structures in the present nanocomposites have outstanding organic dye adsorption performance, stability, and recycling. The agglomeration of carboxylate graphene oxide was reduced with increased specific surface area because the Fe3O4 nanoparticles play important roles in interpenetrating and supporting graphene oxide sheets layers. In comparison with other kinds of composite adsorbents, the preparation process of the present new sandwiched composite materials is facile to operate and regulate, which demonstrates potential large-scale applications in wastewater treatment and dye removal.

Rational design of heterogeneous electrode materials with hierarchical architecture is a potential approach to significantly improve their energy densities. Herein, we report a tailored microwave-assisted synthetic strategy to create heterogeneous hierarchical Ti3SiC2@C-containing Na2Ti7O15 (MAX@C-NTO) composites as potential anode materials for high-performance sodium storage in a wide temperature range from 25 to 80 °C. This composite delivers first reversible capacities of 230 mAh g–1 at 200 mA g–1 and 149 mAh g–1 at 3000 mA g–1 at 25 °C. A high capacity of ∼93 mAh g–1 without any apparent decay even after more than 10 000 cycles is obtained at an ultrahigh current density of 10 000 mA g–1. Moreover, both a high reversible capacity and an ultralong durable stability are achieved below 60 °C for the same composites, wherein a 75.2% capacity retention (∼120 mAh g–1 at 10 000 mA g–1) is achieved after 3000 cycles at 60 °C. To the best of our knowledge, both the sodium storage performances and the temperat...

Zirconium phosphate (ZrP) has been developed as an efficient adsorbent, since the 1960s, but most research involving ZrP focuses on metal cation (e.g. K⁺/Ca²⁺/Pb²⁺/Cu²⁺) capture. Herein, we synthesized a ZrP nanoflake by simple in-situ precipitation procedures and successfully explored a new application area for it: fluoride scavenging. Completely different from the conventional metal oxides, the resultant ZrP exhibits good chemical stability in acidic or basic environments. More importantly, preferable fluoride uptake can be achieved at high concentrations of competitive anions (SO4²⁻/Cl⁻/NO3⁻) addition, exceeding that of commercial D201, activated Al2O3, manganese sands, etc. Kinetic results further demonstrate its efficiency for approaching equilibrium in 5 min. Furthermore, the actual application proves superior treatment capacities of approximately 1800 kg and 3900 kg for groundwater and acidic wastewater treatment, respectively and the exhausted materials can be readily regenerated using 5% NaOH solution for at least five cycles. XPS and FT-IR investigation reveal that the preferable fluoride adsorption can be ascribed to strong inner-sphere complexation achieved by ZrF bonds. All the results demonstrate that the representative ZrP nanoflake is an efficient and rapid fluoride-removing candidate for cleaning water.

The design and self-assembly of graphene oxide (GO)-based hierarchical composite gels have attracting numerous attentions due to wide applications in nanomaterial and environmental fields. In this research work, a facile strategy is demonstrated to prepare chemically modified graphene oxide-poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (GO-PEG) composite hydrogels by thiol-ene photopolymerization. The photopolymerization process between thiol groups on GO surface and ene segments in soluble PEG derivatives is critically predominant for the formation of composite hydrogels. The obtained composite hydrogels show good removal capacities and fit in pseudo-second-order model for used three model dyes. Thus, the present obtained GO-PEG composite hydrogels constructed by thiol-ene photopolymerization via eco-friendly prepared manner demonstrate new clues for preparing GO-based composite hydrogels and soft matter towards wastewater treatment applications.

The aim of the present study was to elucidate differentially expressed proteins in lesional tissues of psoriasis vulgaris (PV) and normal tissues. Lesional skin tissues were collected from PV patients, along with normal skin tissues from healthy individuals. The protein content of the samples was extracted and then separated by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DGE). Any proteins that were differentially expressed in the lesional skin of PV patients compared with the healthy controls were analyzed by mass spectrometry and bioinformatics. In the stratum corneum and dermis of PV patients, the total number of proteins identified by 2-DGE was 1,969±21 and 1,928±49, respectively. Of these, 30 proteins were differentially expressed in the PV patients, of which 14 were identified as: Type 1 keratin cytoskeleton proteins (including K1C10, K1C14, K1C15 and K1C16); the type 2 keratin cytoskeleton protein, K2C1; actin-associated proteins (including ARP3, ACTA and ACTBM); prohibitin; heat shock proteins (HSPB1 and CH60); centrosome protein, CP135; and membrane associated proteins (including ANXA4 and ANXA5). The differential expression of protein between PV lesions and normal tissue can be considered as pathological biomarker. Elucidating the abnormal regulation of these proteins can provide mechanism of the development of PV and may contribute to significant approaches for PV treatments.

Two-dimensional MXene materials with proper direct-band gap are especially desirable for photoelectric applications. Herein a new scandium-based carbide MXene (ScNbCO2) with direct band gap of ∼1.40 eV has been predicted by doping Nb transition metal and strain in terms of density-functional theory. The Nb-doping changes into direct band gap of 1.84 eV from indirect band gap of 2.96 eV of Sc2CO2. Attractively, the direct band gap of ScNbCO2 of ∼1.40 eV is further attained by stain effect. Especially, an increase of ∼20 times is achieved in the case of 3% uniaxial ScNbCO2. It reveals that these metal-doping MXene materials are promising to develop new light-electron conversion components.

New hierarchical bioinspired nanocomposite materials of poly(vinyl alcohol)/poly(acrylic acid)/carboxylate graphene oxide nanosheet@polydopamine (PVA/PAA/GO-COOH@PDA) were successfully prepared by electrospinning technique, thermal treatment, and polydopamine modification. The obtained composite membranes are composed of polymeric nanofibers with carboxylate graphene oxide nanosheets, which are anchored on the fibers by heat-induced cross-linking reaction. The preparation process demonstrate eco-friendly and controllable manner. These as-formed nanocomposites were characterized by various morphological methods and spectral techniques. Due to the unique polydopamine and graphene oxide containing structures in composites, the as-obtained composite demonstrate well efficient adsorption capacity toward dye removal, which is primarily due to the specific surface area of electrospun membranes and the active polydopamine/graphene oxide components. In addition, the composite membranes reported here are easy to re...

Enhanced removal of phosphate by biomass-supported adsorbents is an effective and economic method to prevent the accelerated eutrophication in water body. A new nanocomposite Ws-N-La is fabricated for efficient phosphate removal by immobilizing “rod-like” nano-sized La(III) (hydr)oxides within a quaternary-aminated wheat straw (Ws-N). It exhibits higher adsorption capacity towards phosphate than the commercial IRA-900 or HFO-201 even at higher competing anions levels. The pH result indicated that the Ws-N-La would effectively sequestrate phosphate over a wide pH range between 3.0 and 7.0 without significant La(III) leaching. Ten cycles of adsorption-desorption experiments reveals that no significant capacity loss is observed, indicating excellent stability and repeated use property than any other La(III)-based adsorbents. The results of TEM, XRD and XPS analysis demonstrated that the formation of “needle-like” lanthanum phosphate nanoparticle is the dominant pathway for the specific adsorption of phosphate by nano-La(III) (hydr)oxides. All the results suggested that the biomass-supported nano-composite Ws-N-La can serve as a promising adsorbent for preferable phosphate removal in realistic application.

In this work, we successfully prepared the mussel-inspired polydopamine microspheres (PDA-Ms) with controllable sizes, through a facile self-oxidative polymerization method. The prepared PDA-M biomaterial with environmentally benign properties exhibits efficient lead(II) sequestration against high salts of competitive Ca(II), Mg(II), or Na(I) ions. It reveals 30 times greater than the commercial ion-exchanger 001x7 by selectivity evaluation. Kinetic results show that an exceedingly rapid lead(II) uptake can be achieved below 1 min. More attractively, the prepared PDA-Ms further exhibit the distinguished application ability with superior treated capacity of ∼42000 kg contaminated water/kg sorbent, and the effluents can be reduced from 1000 μg/L to below 10 μg/L, reaching the drinking water standard (WHO), which is equal to 200 times greater than commercial ion exchanger resin (∼210 kg) and granular activated carbon (∼120 kg). In addition, the exhaust PDA-M material can be well regenerated and repeated use ...

A conductive hydrogel is a composite conductive material formed by combining a conductive polymer with a nanogel structure of a hydrogel. Conductive hydrogels not only have potential applications in supercapacitors, sensors, and modulators, they can also be synthesized by many methods, such as copolymerization, crosslinking, and grafting. In this work, we successfully prepared three conductive composite hydrogels by in situ polymerization, namely polypyrrole sodium alginate conductive hydrogel, ferric chloride-doped polypyrrole sodium alginate hydrogel and doped polypyrrole sodium alginate hydrogel with sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate. In addition, a series of characterizations were performed for the three conductive hydrogels described above. The results show that the polypyrrole sodium alginate hydrogel doped with ferric chloride forms a nanofiber network with a more stable structure and better electrochemical performance.

With development of the society, the problem of environmental pollution is becoming more and more serious. There is the urgent need to develop a new type of sustainable green material for degradable pollutants. However, the conventional preparation method is limited by conditions such as cumbersome operation, high energy consumption, and high pollution. Here, a simple method named self-reduction has been proposed, to synthesize highly efficient catalytic nitro compounds and morin self-assembled MXene-Pd nanocomposites. Palladium nanoparticles were grown in situ on MXene nanosheets to form MXene@PdNPs. MXene@PdNPs composites with different reaction times were prepared by adjusting the reduction reaction time. In particular, MXene@PdNPs20 exhibited a high catalytic effect on 4-NP and 2-NA, and the first-order rate constants of the catalysis were 0.180 s&minus, 1 and 0.089 s&minus, 1, respectively. It should be noted that after eight consecutive catalytic cycles, the conversion to catalyze 4-NP was still greater than 94%, and the conversion to catalyze 2-NA was still greater than 91.8%. Therefore, the research of self-assembled MXene@PdNPs nanocomposites has important potential value for environmental management and sustainable development of human health, and provides new clues for the future research of MXene-based new catalyst materials.

A polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS) modified 8-hydroxyquinoline derivative (denoted as Q-POSS) was synthesized and used as a ligand to coordinate with lanthanide ions to obtain a series of lanthanide complexes Ln(Q-POSS)3 (Ln = Er3+, Yb3+, Nd3+). The as-prepared lanthanide complexes have been characterized by FT-IR, UV&ndash, Vis, and elemental analysis. All these complexes showed the characteristic near-infrared (NIR) luminescence originated from the corresponding lanthanide ions under excitation. Compared with the unmodified counterparts LnQ3 (HQ = 8-hydroxyquinoline), the Ln(Q-POSS)3 complexes showed obviously increased emission intensity, which was ascribed mainly to the steric-hindrance effects of the POSS moiety in the ligands. It is believed that the POSS group could suppress undesired excimer formation and intermolecular aggregation, thus decreasing the concentration quenching effect of the corresponding lanthanide complexes.

A method for dimethyl carbonate and methanol separation using pressure swing distillation is presented, and the optimum design is proposed by minimizing the total annual cost as the objective function. It is revealed that compared with no heat integration pressure swing distillation (HIPSD), partial HIPSD reduces the total annual cost by 20.01%. This paper presents a criterion for selection of the temperature control stage in the low-pressure column (LPC), the temperature profile of which is quite close to linear. Additionally, the influences of the temperature stage in the LPC on the dynamic responses in the partial HIPSD are investigated. The results show that the composition/temperature cascade control structure with stage 10 or 31 selected as the control stage in the LPC can achieve efficient controllability of the process, even for large feed flow rates and composition disturbances. © 2016 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Differing from graphene, the activated groups on the surface of layered two-dimensional titanium carbide (MXene) materials bestow superiority to self-assemble some novel MXene derivatives with intriguing chemical/physical properties. Here we first report a series of new MXene-Ag composites by directly mixing AgNO3 and alkalization-intercalated MXene (alk-MXene, Ti3C2(OH/ONa)2) solution containing polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) at room temperature, in which an analogous urchin-shaped MXene-Ag0.9Ti0.1 bimetallic nanowire composite exhibits unexpected electrocatalytic activity for the oxygen reduction reaction. The addition of PVP solution induces the formation of 5-fold nanotwin Ag seeds, which then grow into Ag/Ti (Ag0.9Ti0.1) bimetallic nanowires. The unique bimetallic nanowires favor a four-electron transfer process, and exhibit high current density and good stability by offering numerous oxygen adsorption sites and shortening the diffusion path of adsorbed oxygen. The results represent a new step for the el...

A new MXene/Ag composite was synthesized by direct reduction of a AgNO3 aqueous solution in the presence of MXene (Ti3C2(OH)0.8F1.2). The as-received MXene/Ag composite can be deemed as an excellent anode material for lithium-ion batteries, exhibiting an extraordinary long cycle lifetime with a large capacity at high charge-discharge rates. The results show that Ag self-reduction in MXene solution is related to the existence of low-valence Ti. Reversible capacities of 310 mAh·g(-1) at 1 C (theoretical value being ∼320 mAh·g(-1)), 260 mAh·g(-1) at 10 C, and 150 mAh·g(-1) at 50 C were achieved. Remarkably, the composite withstands more than 5000 cycles without capacity decay at 1-50 C. The main reasons for the long cycle life with high capacity are relevant to the reduced interface resistance and the occurrence of Ti(II) to Ti(III) during the cycle process.

In this work, a new adsorbent, i.e., lysozyme nanofibrils conjugated with long-chain PEI, which could be successfully modified with the aid of a polydopamine (PDA) interface, was prepared by a simple and green method. The resulting fibrous composites exhibited superior adsorption and selectivity for lead (II) removal due to their primary amino groups, even in the presence of coexisting Ca2+/Mg2+/Na+ ions at higher concentrations. The selectivity index was approximately 80 times higher than those of the primitive matrix and the commercial ion exchange resin 001x7. The high surface-to-volume morphology also enabled fast kinetics in 2 min. The modified nanofibrils effectively treated ~12200 kg contaminated water/kg sorbent and could be regenerated. The effluent Pb concentration could be reduced to below 10 μg/L, meeting the criterion for drinking water recommended by WHO. The bioinspired simple fabrication and efficient performance of these nanofibrils make them highly promising for alleviating Pb contamination problems.